Discovering the adversary, one day at a time

April 21, 2010

Jihad Vault, Part III

As part three of my occasional series highlighting the spiritual character of the Salafist-jihadist writing, I would like to introduce you to Yousef al-Uyyeri's, "The Path to the Land of Battle." It's only 12 pages in its At-Tibyan translation (excerpted), and a comparatively breezy read compared to other studies in the Salafist-jihadi literature. Nevertheless it offers a good snapshot of one of the key reasons why young men (and women) are drawn to the movement.

So let the Youth of this Ummah know: That the truthful and sincere ones who have preceded them (to the Lands of the Jihad), they verily made serious attempts and spent and sacrificed to the maximum of their humanly capability – and then they entered the land of the Jihad… but after what? They entered only after they exhausted everything, after they had gone through stages of fear and anxiety, and after they were expelled, and many hardships… But they were truly sincere to Allah, so thus they arrived at their intended destinations.

And it is for this reason that Allah has mentioned that the ‘path’ to the Jihad, is also a Jihad in and of itself. And that is why Allah has attached such great and enormous rewards to it, and He counted the one who leaves to go to the Jihad, as a ‘Mujahid’ even before he reaches the land of the Jihad – and if he dies in that path, he dies as a Shahid. All of this virtue and reward has come as incitement for the men of this Ummah to take part in the Jihad. And the Mujahid – what does he want from his Jihad? Indeed, he wants one of the two best things – either victory, or martyrdom. And if he attains either of the two, then he has been successful. And for this reason, Allah (Most Glorious is He) and His Messenger (salutations and peace be upon him) have clarified that the one who goes out for Jihad, then verily he will attain one of the two best things .

In a January 2008 expert report submitted in the federal case against Marwan Amawi, et al (click here and here for more on the outcome of the case), Evan Kohlmann quotes from "Path":

In his book “The Path to the Land of Battle”, Yousef al-Ayyiri encourages Muslims around the world to join in Al-Qaida’s cause, whether directly or indirectly—because, in his words, “The Virtue of Whosover Falls Down in the Path of Allah, and Dies, Then He is One of Them... Then he is one of them: Meaning, he is of the Mujahidin.” Al-Ayyiri goes on to implore his readers to “try hard, and walk to the path of the Jihad. Those who reached (the land of) the Jihad—they were not ‘supernatural’ people; rather, they were humans, Muslims. They merely tried sincerely to reach the lands, and Allah facilitated it for them—after they wore out their eyes and ears in search for this Path... And how many paths there are to Jihad! ...it is absolutely impossible for a sincere slave of Allah to miss all these pathways to the Jihad... If only one million (1,000,000) Muslims attempted to arrive at the lands of the Jihad, then 100,000 of them would have definitely reached—and they would have been sufficient for the Mujahidin to continue in the lands of the Jihad.”

What's clear here is that al-Qaida's leaders (like al-Uyyeri) make no
distinction between the "internal" jihad of personal inner struggle -
so often mentioned by MB front group talking heads on TV -- and the external
jihad against designated enemies.

A copy is still hosted at -- where else? -- archive org. It's one of dozens of at-Tibyan publications available at this directory,

http://ia311035.us.archive.org/2/items/guidebooks/

It is directly linked at the now-defunct, but still live, at-Tibyan blog,